It was only after a meeting of EU finance ministers that they seemed to wake up to the fact that a 30-month reprieve for the travellers' perk was highly unlikely.

Hardline abolitionists - Danish Economics Affairs Minister Marianne Jelved and Finnish Finance Minister Sauli Niniistö - refused to soften their positions and they found vocal support from the Belgians, the Dutch and the Italians.

The British, French and German governments, backed by the Greeks and the Irish, have pressed for a new proposal to delay the introduction of full excise duties on tobacco, alcohol and perfume sales. They also recently won support from Spain.

The pro-abolitionist finance ministers called for the issue to be laid to rest this week, but the German presidency insisted that it be left open for further discussion at the two-day summit which begins next Wednesday (24 March) in Berlin.

Finance ministers agreed back in 1991 that duty-free shopping should be scrapped from July 1999. This decision will stand unless all 15 EU finance ministers instruct the European Commission to come forward with a new legislative proposal for a reprieve.